"UNDERAPPRECIATED MOVIEMAKERS FESTIVAL": In January, 2018, I conceived of an UNDERAPPRECIATED MOVIEMAKERS FESTIVAL.  This idea appealed to me immensely partially because I thought it was an interesting curatorial spin to choose work not on the basis of what type of movie it was (say: experimental, documentary, trash, horror, Asian, Queer, etc) but on whether the moviemakers themselves considered themselves & their work to be UNDERAPPRECIATED.  As the criteria that I would judge the entries by I asked the following questions: "Have you been making movies for at least 30 years without receiving much attention?  Do you have a large body of work that you don't get credit for?  Have you seen younger, richer friends of yours imitate you & go on to well-paying gigs at places where you're more likely to be confronted by security forces wondering why you're there?  Are you still controversial after decades of dedicated work?  Is it almost impossible for you to get a screening anywhere?!  Is your work almost never written about?!"  These were all questions that I felt I could personally answer YES to honestly.  My hope was that I would get responses from all over the world from obscure people who were truly UNDERAPPRECIATED that I'd never heard of before.  I posted the invite online in various contexts & sent it out to various email lists.  Within the 1st day, I got a fair amount of enthusiastic responses that seemed promising.  I created a website ( http://idioideo.pleintekst.nl/UNDERAPPRECIATED.html ) & 3 Facebook pages.  Alas, the submissions tapered off quickly & many of the people who submitted didn't qualify either because they hadn't been making work long enough or because they were too appreciated (having won many awards, etc).  I had to reject some old friends whose work I like very much.  Other people who I accepted dropped out for one reason or another.  I chose to include one recently deceased friend of mine whose work I thought qualified.  Everyone else turned out to be an old friend of mine with one exception: ronnie s.  In a way this preponderance of old friends made sense because our shared alienation was something that had brought us together in the 1st place.  Dick Turner, an old friend from BalTimOre living in Paris for the last 22 years, was particularly very enthusiastic — having had mediocre receptions for his movies in Paris.  Even though it was hardly economically to their advantage, Florian Cramer & Mariëtte Groot decided to come from Rotterdam for it, Dick decided to come from Paris, & Skizz Cyzyk & his partner decided to come from BalTimOre.  That meant that the majority of the moviemakers would be there in person.  This provided a very exciting meeting-of-the-minds.  This movie gives an overview of the entire festival — including our activities at my house, driving around to take care of last-minute chores, setting up the signs, rehearsing, presenting the movies (only shown in brief excerpts here), conversing, & eating out after the program of the 1st day.  It also includes the 2nd day's walking to Pittsburgh Filmmakers, eating in its café,  talking in the lobby outside the Mini-Melwood screening room where Will Zavala hosted us as a coproduction with his monthly Documentary Salon, the screening of Owen O'Toole's "Filmers Almanac" (this version can be witnessed in its entirety here: https://youtu.be/2ep7ljo6Jq4 ) & Dick Turners "Nature Morte avec des Oranges" (Still Life with Oranges) & the surrounding talking, & our late night conversation at the Who Unit?.  Then there's the 3rd day which starts at the Glitter Box Theater, without any of the day's earlier activities, & ends back at the Who Unit? where Florian & Dick brainstorm about the movie they want to make in my house & environs.  The Glitter Box program consisted of: Skizz's "David Fair is the King", the beginning of my "Endangered Languages, Endangered Cultures, Endangered Ideas" in a one-of-a-kind performance of it is next, Florian's one-of-a-kind presentation of his floppy-disc piece entitled "Upsetter" follows, then his "Sunset Boulevard — a Neoist research project", & finally Skizz's feature about Fred Lane called "Icepick to the Moon".  Attendees seemed to particularly appreciate the latter so much of this movie is occupied with questions for Skizz about it.  It concludes with the 4th & final day — including a rehearsal & 'ephemera' preceding the closing night "Afterbirth Party".  It was an "Afterbirth Party" because it was after the birth of the UNDERAPPRECIATED MOVIEMAKERS FESTIVAL.  I don't know whether there will be another such festival.  In a way I hope I'm NOT the organizer of it because there are times when my own unpopularity is insufferable.  ANYWAY, the evening's program consisted of my karaoke version of Dick Turner's song "Let's Have An Orgy" followed by a solo set from Skizz Cyzyk under the name of "Go Pill" followed by a solo set by Dick Turner followed by a solo set my Mariëtte Groot under the name of "dzum" followed by the "Quartet for the End of Time", a unification of the previous 4 acts — so named both as an obvious reference to Olivier Messiaen's composition of the same name & for reasons similar to the name "Afterbirth Party" — a signification of the end of the FESTIVAL.  Perhaps oddly, this was probably the most 'populist' 'concert' I've ever organized but still the least attended.  Ironically, a large amount was spent on booze in anticipation of a drinking crowd — leaving my Who Unit? refrigerator well-stocked at a time in my life when I barely drink alcohol anymore.  Ha ha!  It gives a good realistic look at the type of cooperative energy that makes such an ultra-low-budget festival possible.  I organized this on $646 a month Social Security retirement money (after my bills were paid for).  If you think that was easy try it sometime.  There were no grants & little public support.  I was enormously helped by the other participants.  It was barely manageable.  Still, for me, & I think for all who participated, this was an historic event. - September 23, 2018 note from tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE  

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